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The following is a guest post from Realm of Prosperity. For posts related to this one, also see How The Game of Life Teaches Personal Finance and Money Lessons from Monopoly. For more on earning extra income check out Three Easiest Ways to Earn More Money, 11 Great Ways to Earn More Money, and Five Steps to Six Figures in Seven Years.

Personally, I like FIFA 2010 for learning about money. I use the manager mode to run a full team — buying and selling players, deciding on sponsorship options, negotiating salaries, and adding to my stadium to make more money. Very fun IMO.

Age of Empires. Starcraft. Warcraft. Are you recalling a time in your life when one of these titles was a reason for you being glued to your PC?

These multiplayer war games feature a style of gameplay that is pretty intuitive: gather resources, build an army, and kill your enemies. For those who never cared for such war games (probably most ladies and older folks), you can grasp the concepts by simply looking at the historic events of how global empires were built. Even until today, global conflicts occur over precious commodities such as oil and diamonds.

The art of war isn’t an exact science but building a formidable empire, whether in the real world or the virtual world, entails acquiring new resources. Likewise, building substantial wealth asks that you find additional or higher streams of income and saving it. Despite serving the sole purpose of entertainment, these addictive war strategy games can teach a thing or two about building our own financial empires.

Conquering New Resources

Of course, I was one of those guys who had my eyes locked on the PC monitor and my hand glued to the mouse for hours on end – with very little success in beating my friends. In my mind, I kept wondering “why do I keep losing?”. Evidently, I realized that they were able to build “empires” three times as large as mine!

After some self-evaluation, it became apparent to me that I refused to expand my “empire” by taking over more land and resources. To improve my win-ratio, I needed to create a big, bad(ass) empire by venturing out into unknown lands and find new resources. With more resources coming in, I can afford to grow bigger and stronger.

Similarly, if you want to increase the numbers in your bank account statements, you should seek out other forms of extra income. A surplus of $50 per month can go a long way towards your financial goals. I learned that conquering new resources is essential to building more wealth. Stepping out of your comfort zone into the abyss may be risky but the rewards are worth it.

What can you do to acquire new resources? Well, check out some of these ideas:

• Ask for a raise
• Discover a profitable hobby
• Starting a side business
• Turn your blood into money

If you want to turtle in the same size “empire” like I did, you may be able to sustain yourself but you will be lacking in growth. There are many other competitors out there who are willing to do what you don’t want to do. If I didn’t try to pick up a freelance writing job, the person next to me will. So why not seize the opportunities for extra income?

Keep Your Edge Over the Competition

It is quite disappointing to see that as the game progresses, my enemies who gathered more resources earlier in the game were able to continue to gain more resources faster. Soon, they grow to such an enormous size that no one can possibly take them out. Then, they’ll being inching into my territory.

In our world, the uneven distribution of wealth supports the common notion that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer – the top 2% of the world wealthiest own about 40% of the global wealth. They can afford to invest in the most profitable industries and businesses while the poor are stuck with fewer options.

To keep my edge over the competition, I’ll have to use my resources to obtain more resources. In personal finance, this resembles the great mathematical phenomenon of compounding. Wealth creation entails using money to make more money. It can be as simple as putting your money in a high-yield savings account or usig a more ambitious route with investments in the stock market. But most importantly, I must make my money work for me.

It reminds me of the story of a miser who hires two teenagers to tend to his livestock while he was away for 30 days. One teen gets paid $100 and the other starts at one penny at a rate that doubles every day afterwards. Of course, the latter came out with significantly more.

Go out into the unfamiliar lands and conquer the new sources of income that are available to you. Use the extra money you earn to build your wealth into a financial empire. You’ll find that your initiative will reap many rewards.

So, don’t shun strategic war video games as a pointless waste of time because they are based on actual concepts. Come on guys, I know many of you have played them. Has a video game ever taught you a money lesson?